Schneider Family

Bob's Birthday

2010-01-21T21:57:00.001-08:00

Bob gets told every year that with having his birthday New Year's Eve, he is never without a party. While that is true, I feel bad for him because sometimes I think his birthday tends to get overshadowed by all the other festivities of the season. This is the only picture we have. :-( He did get his Lemon Raspberry Cheesecake that he wanted though. He is always happy with that.

The pets enjoy Christmas too.

2010-01-21T21:49:00.000-08:00

These photos seem to becoming a tradition as well...

Muggsie got her usual toy. She had been with out this toy for a couple of months. She latched on to this new one right away. She uses it almost like a pacifier. It is really strange, but she loves it! She is on her 5th one...I think.

This is Pixie's favorite place to be at Christmas time. I put up this set of 3 little Christmas trees on a table and put this white fluffy stuff at the base of them. She likes to curl up and sleep under the trees on the fluffy stuff.

What can I say...I love my pets.

The celebrating continues...

2010-01-21T21:44:00.000-08:00

We can't leave Cali, Jeremiah, & Miracle out. We missed them on Christmas day this year because they were down in St. David visiting with Jeremiah's family. So we got to celebrate with them a few days later.

Christmas Evening

2010-01-21T20:56:00.000-08:00

Ok, so we all like to prolong the festivities all day long. The whole family gets together again in the evening. We usually have a bunch of finger foods for dinner to make things easy. Then we have a gift exchange. The adult siblings draw names too. I think everyone has more fun just being together.

It's a little crowded and maybe a little chaotic, but we all have lots of fun!

Since everyone is on a tight budget this year, there were a lot of homemade gifts. i like the homemade ones because there just seems to be a lot more personal thought put into it. Autumn & Dave had us. Autumn made us blocks with vinyl lettering that say "BELIEVE" on them plus she did some more vinyl sayings that we can put up on our walls. I thought it was great!This was definitly the year for porcelain dolls. All the grandaughters got them from my parents. So fun! They were all historical dolls. Summer got Princess Grace.McKenzi got Betsy Ross.My parents gave all the siblings a great gift this year. They put together a geneology book that is personally done for each one of us. It has our personal geneological lines plus it is loaded with stories about many of our ancestor...many which are personal journal entries. We also recieved a book with all the decendants of Charles Sreeve Peterson, my Great Great Grandpa. I will cherish these books for the stories and also because I know the many, many hours of work that went into these books!

Then we all dig into our stockings. This has been a tradition for as long as I can remember. We wait until the evening to open up our stockings. It drives all the kids crazy with anticipation, but they love it.

Christmas Morning

2010-01-21T20:24:00.000-08:00

I think this was the first Christmas morning that we actually slept in 'til 8 am. I guess that's an advantage to having teenagers. We always have to take the traditional picture of the kids coming down the stairs. It was only Summer and McKenzi this year. It was a treat to have Carter & Dian with Evelynne and Lucas over to open presents and have breakfast with us.I love this picture! I had made some name plaques for the kids this year for the kids to hang on their walls. Summer had written her name out in musical symbols almost a year ago. Bob had kept the paper that she drew it on. I was able to find a font on line that would work. Autumn has access to a vinyl machine, so she was able to cut everything out for me. I had to laugh...it took my mom a while to figure out that it said "Summer".
Bob got me this Marie Osmond doll. She is absolutely adorable. I never had a porcelain doll as a kid, but I am slowly begining to collect them. Bob has good taste :-)Tanner joined us a little later for the festivities right before the whole family came over for the everning.

Family Christmas Party

2010-01-21T20:03:00.000-08:00

The Monday before Christmas we always have a big family Christmas party where the cousins all act out the Nativity while my dad narates out of the Bible. It's a fun tradition for all the kids. They take turns being different characters each year.

Another fun tradition is the cousins draw names and they do an ornament exchange. So by the time they are ready to leave home, they will each have a box of their own Christmas ornaments. They all love to see all the different ornaments that they get each year.

After all these things we always end the night with a visit from our favorite Santa...Don Hathaway. He has been coming to our family parties for years. He was in our ward when we lived on 7th street. McKenzi thought it was the greatest thing because Santa was in her ward. She & Don have had a special bond over the years that I think will last a lifetime. I love how he always makes sure to talk a bit about the real meaning of Christmas...the birth of our Savior.Of course, neither Tanner or Summer are too old to sit on Santa's lap.Each of the kids get a turn and Santa gives a gift to each child.

1st Baby Grandson

2010-01-21T19:46:00.000-08:00

On Dec. 3 at 12:41 am Carter & Dian had their 2nd child: Lucas Bently Schneider weighed 6 lb. 2 oz. He is so cute! He reminds me a lot of what Carter looked like when he was born only a little smaller. He seems to have such a calm temperament. Watching my grandchildren being born is such a blessing and brings home just how precious the miracle of life is.

Thanksgiving

2010-01-20T10:18:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is always a fun time with family. We were so happy to have my sister Heidi with her whole family here from California.

The day before Thanksgiving I got a weird itch to do something creative just for fun. I think it was a little ambitious for me to do this the night before because it took a bit longer than i had anticipated. I made 40 of these little turkeys out of Oreo's, Reece's miniatures, mini chocolate chips, and candy corns. Candy corns are extreemly difficult to find after Halloween! I had to go to about 5 different stores to find them. I think they turned out pretty cute. The kids all seemed to like them.

Cali decided to get a bit ambitious too. She has been wanting to attempt making a TURDUCKIN for the past couple of years. This year she did it. What is a turduckin?...It's a chicken with stuffing, stuffed into a duck..with a little more stuffing, which is then stuffed into a turkey...with a little more stuffing. Take in mind that each one of the birds is each completely deboned. They are then all sewn together. I was amazed that the birds could be deboned yet still remain intact. All I did was help with the stuffing and provide the oven to cook it in. It was quite yummy...very flavorful! However, it wasn't real pretty to look at.

Then, of course, we always have to ad the traditional picture of our pie spread. We had 13 homemade pies this year.

We have dinner every other year at my parents with the thought of hitting the in-laws on the "off" years. Then the thought is that pies would be done on the alternate years. It seems that our family is a bit unusual with so many HOMEMADE pies, so everyone seems to stick around for pie no matter what year it is. My parents rent one of those big bouncy thinks for the kids. It takes up a big chunk of their back yard. The kids all love it. That is where the kids end up...but this is where the adults end up...crashed! The football games are on, but I am not sure how much of them actually get watched.

Family Togetherness...Ha!

2010-01-20T10:06:00.000-08:00

Ok, it's catch up time. Life seems to be flying by so quickly!

Back in November we had a little scare with Bob's mom being airevaced down here to the valley thinking she was having a heart attack and the doctors couldn't keep her blood pressure down. Everything turned out just fine...no heart attack...just an adjustment in the meds. All the siblings came into town with everything going on, so they decided to use this opportunity to get some photos done for the first time in YEARS. This was quite a feat. This first picture was how most of them went...not a whole lot of seriousness with this bunch.

We finally got one good enough to give his parents for Christmas.

Miracle"s 1st Birthday

2009-10-18T22:18:00.000-07:00

I realized that I did not post anything about Miracle's birthday. Shame on me! That took place in August. I really will get the hang of this blogging stuff sometime. But for now things might be a bit out of order.

Miracle was so excited to open presents. She was thrilled with her new toy cell phone. She loves anything with buttons to push!

We also gave her a new doll. I think that will be the grandma thing for when the girls turn one. I think every little girl needs a doll to play with.

Then of course comes the birthday cake. Cali made chocolate cupcakes with gooey chocolate frosting for her.

She got stripped down to nothing too and then she chowed on that cupcake. chocolate was everywhere. But she sure enjoyed it!

Evelynne's Birthday

2009-10-18T22:03:00.001-07:00

Evelynne turned 1 today! She had more fun opening presents and tearing all that paper than she did with the actual presents.

What she really wanted was the cake! Carter and Dian made sure that Evelynne was stripped down to nothing but her diaper first. She had 2 cakes...the one everyone else ate, and one just for herself.

She had more green frosting on her! Pure bliss!Ah, and she was so willing to share with everyone!

Tanner's Ingrown saga continues

2009-10-17T23:35:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: This one is not for the faint of heart...again! I know, I know....GROSS! But we do what we have to do, right?

Tanner seems to get these serious ingrown toenails every 3 months....in both big toes! I don' t know how he walks around with them. I know they are bothering him quite a bit when he is practically begging me to take care of them again. the last time we went through this I told him if he gets them again, then the next time we will have to remove the whole toenail. So that's what we did.

We numbed him up, removed both of his toenails, doused him with Yarrow (That's the stuff making his toe look black. It isn't pretty, but it is wonderful stuff. sure helps things to heal real nice!), Then got him all bandaged up. He's still smiling. Actually, he said he felt much better the next day. Hopefully this will last for a while this time.

Garden Time

2009-10-17T23:09:00.000-07:00

Ok, we totally revamped out garden. We changed our watering system from having everything on drips to an irrigation system. We had gone to a Preparedness Fair in our stake and attended a class on gardening. The guy who taught the class brought detailed pictures of his garden. He had about as much space as we do and his yield was incredible. So we decided to give it a try.

We put a plastic container around the heads and cut 3 holes in the bottom of it to divert and diffuse the water flow.

I then planted a couple different lettuces, cucumbers, broccoli, parsnips, beets, kohlrabi, brussel sprouts, peas, turnips, carrots, and spinach. I know, that may be a bit ambitious, but just maybe...

Then we gave the watering a shot. So far, so good. Our homemade diffuser seems to work pretty good. I will post more pictures as the garden grows.

Birthday cake for Grandbaby!

2009-10-17T22:57:00.000-07:00

I just finished making this birthday cake for Evelynne's 1st birthday tomorrow. I had fun making it. I will post more pictures of the birthday party, but I just had to get this one out there.

Homecoming!

2009-10-05T22:17:00.000-07:00

Tanner's first school dance! He asked Tiffany Peterson...who happens to be a Senior :-) They had a ball. They started off in the morning going to Walmart and getting stuff for breakfast and buying T-shirts. They spray painted designs on them and watched a movie. Later in the evening they went to someones house for dinner, then to the dance, and then to someone's house afterwards for ice cream. A great night. They both looked so cute!

My Birthday

2009-10-05T21:59:00.001-07:00

Next was my birthday. Yes, I turned 43. Once you are over 40, birthdays become uneventful...or so I thought. I really did not expect much at all because we have been so strapped for money in this economy. But Bob surprized me with a dozen red roses..so pretty! We had some movie tickets, so he took me to see a movie in the middle of the day while the kids were in school. We saw "Julie & Julia". Loved it! Then he took me out to eat at the Pita Jungle. i love that place because they have such good fresh food and it's even healthy. We also had tickets to the musical "Legally Blond". We had bought tickets early last Spring. It turned out to be a really nice birthday.

Then over the weekend I kind of got another surprize. Summer came down from NAU for my birthday. So all the kids were over on Sunday and fixed me dinner. Of course when Cali cooks it's always good. Tanner's present to me was a bunch of King crab legs. He even cooked them for me. I love crab! It was a very thoughful gift. It was a very nice weekend.

I had to add this one...we were all tired and stuffed. McKenzi and I were just lying on the floor and Evelynne decided she was going to try walking. These were the first steps that I had seen her take. So cute!

Strange Pet

2009-10-05T21:55:00.000-07:00

This was such a random shot, but so typical of our cat, Tigger. If there is a box or plastic bag somewhere with in reach, Tigger will find a way to surl up in it. McKenzi was putting a puzzle together and Tigger decided to make the box her bed for the afternoon.

Tanner's 17th Birthday!

2009-10-05T21:46:00.001-07:00

A week after Summer's birthday was Tanner's 17th birthday. He requested an Oreo cookie cake. He loved it. It's hard to believe he is 17 all ready!

Of course he is always happy to recieve Dots and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

Summer's 18th Birthday

2009-10-05T21:10:00.000-07:00

Wow, I have kind of been neglecting my blog during the summer. Time to play catch up. We'll start with the month of August...which is always a very busy month. Vaccations are usually ending, everyone is getting ready for school to start, and we have a couple of birthdays. Summer's was the first birthday. This was quite an eventful one for her since she turned 18 and then headed up to NAU for college. We had a small family party for her. She requested Yogurt Pie which has been her favorite for several years.

She recieved several jars of Nutella and grahm crackers...another one of her favorite things!

She also got a couple boxes of snacks and supplies to last her for a little bit in her dorm.

We have EGGS!

2009-05-27T21:58:00.000-07:00

I just had to take a picture of our first egg. It happened about 2 weeks ago. It really is a blue/green egg. We have had about 12 others since. We are getting brown eggs too. Is it silly to be so excited over eggs?

Surprise Announcements!

2009-05-27T21:19:00.000-07:00

We were all quite surprised when Carter & Dian came to us and told us that Dian had decided to get baptized. She had been taking the discussions all on her own. We were so excited for her. What surprised us even more was that Carter was able to baptize her. We are so proud of both of them. Hopefully this will be the beginning of some real growth for them. Well...as if that announcement wasn't big enough...one week after her baptism they came over and announced that Dian is expecting again maybe sometime in December! WOW!

Graduation!

2009-05-27T16:44:00.000-07:00

Summer is officially graduated! She graduated with honors and will be heading off to college in the fall on a full scholarship. The graduation was held at the Well's Fargo Arena at ASU. We are so proud of her! Me & Summer

Bob & Summer

Summer & Hannah

McKenzi, Summer, & Cali...My girls

It was fun to have my sister Heidi here. She drove in from California just a couple hours before the graduation.

It was nice to have both Grandma Schneider and Grandma & Grandpa Peterson there too.

After the graduation we decided to go out to eat. Summer's 1st choice was Olive Garden but we were told there was 1 1/2 hours wait. We hit a couple more and were told the same thing. We finally settled on Fudrucker's and got right in. That was where Bob and I had our first date, so that was fine by us. Everyone had a great time.

2009-05-27T15:49:00.000-07:00

Summer has been living the life of a very social Senior. Over the past month she has attended 4 Proms...yes 4! She wore a different dress each time. The first one she wore last year's dress and she borrowed the others. She also had me make the boutineers. My roses came quite handy for all those. So she really got off for very little money. Prom can be done on a shoe string! She was so pretty!

Prom #1: Basha High School with Parker

Prom #2: Desert Ridge with Anthony

Prom #3: Mesquite with Tanner

Frog, Monet, Summer, & Tanner
She had more fun getting ready with her friend Monet. They went and had pedicures done and did their hair together. So cute!

Prom #4: Red Mountain with Colton

2009-05-27T15:27:00.000-07:00

Easter Sunday we had everyone over for dinner. It was really nice outside. I have to just say that I have the cutest grandkids in the world!

Miracle & Evelyne

McKenzi & Miracle
Dian & Evelyne

2009-05-27T14:47:00.000-07:00

Ok, I have been a bit neglectful about blogging this past month. What can I say, it has been quite a busy month.
Here are more of my gardening hobbies. I love flowers. It must be a bit in the blood. i remember when I was a child, going over to my great grandpa's house. His backyard was filled with flowers. He loved flowers. Everyone knew he loved flowers. This was manifested at his funeral. I had never seen anything like it. There were flowere arrangements everywhere in the chapel. I don't think it would be an exageration to say there were well over 100 arrangements. I still remember how good it smelled. Anyway, these are a few of my roses that I have in our yard that looked so pretty last month!

This is my all time favorite...my Sterling Silver rose. I love all lavender roses, but this is my favorite. The fragrance is incredible.

This is my Peace roseI don't know what this one is called. I just like it and it always has a lot of blooms.This is another favorite of mine...my Queen Elizabeth rose.

What is With These THINGS!

2009-04-09T23:58:00.001-07:00

Ok, I think I have seen enough of these in my house! This is the 3rd one in the past 9 months. We have been in our house for 7 years and have never seen one of these until now. Not much really bothers me, but these kind of creep me out. The first one was discovered last summer by Tanner. It had settled into his damp swimsuit that he had left on the floor. He came up close and quite personal as this little critter proceded to sting him 3 times on the upper thigh when he tried to put his swimsuit back on. Needless to say, he freaked out when he realized what was stinging him. He recovered just fine. But then tonight he was in the bathroom doing his business and this thing crawled across the floor in front of him into a towel that was on the floor. Tanner does not like these things, but they sure like to get a bit personal with him.

he seems to be saying "Come here Tanner, give me a great big hug! Ya know you want to!"

2009-04-09T22:58:00.000-07:00

We had everyone come over for General Conference on Sunday last week. Cali made breakfast crepes with a cream cheese filling and I made a Raspberry/Strawberry topping..YUMMY! Then durring the 2nd session we had dinner crepes with a chicken/mushroom filling with a swiss cheese sauce on top. These have become a conference tradition for the past couple of years. We watched both sessions which were absolutely wonderful, as it always is. After it was all over we decorated sugar cookies. We had so much fun doing it, but had even more fun eating them. Of course, these were our famous family sugar cookies...nothing else compares! Again, it is so nice having a chef in the family.

Such consentration! Our finished product. We actually had 4 trays of these!This is what the boys do inbetween sessions. The games come out and it gets a bit loud! They played Scrabble then they dug into a game of Risk.

Fashion Show

2009-04-09T22:37:00.000-07:00

Summer was recently participated in a fashion show for Arizona Bridal to model MODEST prom dresses. It was quite refreshing to se so many cute girls all dressed in such beautiful prom dresses instead of all those strapless numbers.

She had a lot of fun doing this. I guess this is in preparation for the 3 different proms she will be attending this month...yes, I did say 3...3 proms, 3 different guys, & 3 different schools...unbelievable!

Something Wrong With This Picture...

2009-03-17T11:11:00.000-07:00

I could not resist taking these pictures thismorning. I took a look at out 2 dogs and realized there was just something wrong with this picture. Mugs sleeps in her own bed on the floor but had jumped up on our bed just before Bob got up. She had wormed he way under the covers when Bob got up and fell back to sleep with her head propped up on Bob's pillow.

Then of course, there's Pixie, who sleeps in our bed every night either inbetween our legs or all the way down at the foot of our bed by my feet under the covers. If these 2 weren't so darn cute, this would be rather pathetic! I think that they think that they are more human than dog.

FHE @ the Park

2009-03-17T10:30:00.000-07:00

Ok, It's Spring Break and we can't afford to go anywhere, so we decided last minute to go check out the Gilbert Reserve behind the Gilbert Library. I had never been there before, but had heard about it. We packed a picnic and off we went. This place was huge...trails and ponds and birdseverywhere. We just stayed up at the front because of time. We will have to do this again when we have a bit more time. I made Chicken & Quinoa salad sandwiches and we had carrot sticks and homemade lemonade. We had been squeezing lemons off our tree all day (We still bave bags of lemons to go. We had oodles of lemons this year!) so making the lemonade quickly was a snap and thank goodness for my bottled chicken. It is so nice to have on hand for last minute meals! Everyone loved the sandwiches. they were a hit. Summer snarfed 3 of them! Of course, I just had to get a picture of each of them stuffing their faces.

Bob and Tanner had fun throwing the football around.

The girls had fun watching the ducks.

There were ducks everywhere! We even came across a momma with 10 babies. They were so cute!
Of course Summer went on a search for turtles. She loves turtles. She found a couple. She just thought this picture was too cool because it showed her reflection of her actually taking the picture.Even though it was a last minute thing, we had fun and will do it again

McKenzi is a TEENAGER!

2009-03-16T22:44:00.000-07:00

Well it's official. My baby has entered into the realm of the teenager on March 6th. I tell ya, having 2 grandbabies, your own baby a teenager now, and finding a few gray hairs all in the same year can tend to put the whole "age thing" into perspective. This was McKenzi all dolled up in her new shirt and a tiera ready for school. Her birthday actually fell on a Friday this year so she wanted to have a sleep-over. We usually let them have big "friends" parties only only for certain birthdays. This happened to be an "off" year, but since her birthday actually fell on a Friday we let her have a few friends over for a low key party.

She didn't want to have a big cake, she wanted to have homemade oreos. So I made a whole bunch of them. They were so easy to make. All they were made of was a cake mix, butter, and an egg. The filling was cream cheese and powdered sugar. Sooo easy, sooo yummy! They were a hit. By the end of the night they had consumed the entire plate full!

They had fun doing homemade egg white and lemon juice facials. While the goop was drying on their faces, they all sat around and gabbed and ate junkfood.

Then they all gave themselves pedicures.

After all of that and a bout of "ding-dong-ditching" in the neighborhood, they finally wore themselves out!

The next morning they got up and had pancakes for breakfast. Then they all did each other's hair and makeup...since this happens to be the "all-inportant" age of finally being able to wear makeup. What teenager doesn't like getting dolled up and experimenting with makeup.

A couple days later Cali and Jeremiah came over to give McKenzi a birthday present. Cali had learned how to knit just a couple of months ago and made McKenzi a purse. It turned out so amazingly cute!

In Full Bloom...

2009-03-16T22:36:00.000-07:00

Ok, here it is finally...my jasmine in full bloom. This is where "smell-o-vision" would come in really handy! These are right outside my kitchen window. The smell is incredible. I only get about 2-3 weeks of the rather intoxicating smell. I wish it would last a whole lot longer. The smell of very fragrant flowers in the spring time always puts me in a good mood.

Spring has Sprung!

2009-03-03T16:04:00.000-08:00

In the spring time there is no place I would rather be than outside tinkering in my garden smelling all the flowers in bloom and planting my garden.

I planted a few Hyacinth bulbs in my front flower bed 3 1/2 years ago just because I love the smell of Hyacinth, but I wasn't sure they would live beyond 1 season because it is so hot here in the summer and I have never had any luck digging up bulbs and saving them for the next season. So I left them alone in the ground and they have come back 2 years in a row and I think they are multipying. The smell is incredible!

I'm not sure what this purple flower is, but they are in full bloom and are really pretty.

These Freesia I planted last year and I did the same as the Hyacinth...just left them alone and they jsut popped back up. They definitely multiplied because I think when i was digging and planting other things I must have moved some of the "baby" bulbs because they came up in 3 other places. I didn't realize they could really grow here, but they have.

My Lady Banks roses are in full bloom and they smell wonderfull too. These grow like a weed. I have to trim these a few times a year, but it's all worth it.

My little Anna Apple tree is even in bloom now. It has taken a few years, but we actually get apples off of it now.

This is what I wait for all year...my Pink Jasmine. They only bloom this time of the year in February or March. It is loaded with buds. When they open in about a week or so, the smell is rather intoxicating! I have this right outside my bay window in my kitchen on purpose. i could sit at my kitchen table all day just to smell these. It only lasts for a couple of weeks, but it is well worth the wait. I will post another picture when they open up and are in full bloom. I can't wait 'til all my roses do their next wave of blooms in about a month or so.

Display your hard work!

2009-03-03T15:57:00.000-08:00

I got this wonderful idea from Marie Stevens in my ward. We had a progressive dinner at Christmas time and her house was one of the stops. Across the top of all her kitchen cabinets were all her canned goods. They looked so pretty sitting up there. I had all of my canned goods that I had just recently canned just sitting in boxes on my bedroom floor for a couple of months because I had no more room in my pantry. I finally got them up on my cabinets. They look so much better there. My youngest sister did the same thing in her kitchen too. Great idea!

They're getting BIG!

2009-03-03T15:48:00.000-08:00

The chickens are getting really big now. Pixie used to go right into the coupe and play with the chickens. Now they are just about bigger than her and they peck at her tail and toes so she is a bit scared of them now.

My Chickens: Moving Day

2009-02-17T18:48:00.000-08:00

Well, the chickens grew...Fast! They became very crowded very quickly. So we needed to get the coupe built right away.

Bob, Mr.Handy Man that he is, got started a couple weeks ago. He built it on the side of our house right next to the apple tree.

These are the nesting boxes for when they start laying eggs (which won't be until until around April or May)We moved them into their new home. Now they have plenty of room and I think they are happy.
Here is the finished product all painted. It may end up with a few more embelishments before all is said and done.

Evelynne's Baby Blessing

2009-02-17T15:53:00.000-08:00

Evelynne was so pretty in her blessing dress!

Dian, Evelynne, & Carter

It was nice to have family there for support. It was a beautiful blessing.

Valentine's Getaway

2009-02-17T14:58:00.000-08:00

The kids all got together and gave us a "Date Night" coupon book for Christmas. We decided to use it for our Valentine's weekend...only we went the weekend before. Bob has this milk jug sitting in our closet that he had been throwing all of his change out of his pockets for the past 2 years and decided to cash it in. He had just over $130.00 in it. He went on Priceline for fun to see if he could get a 5 star resort for $125.00 in Scottsdale (which is where the coupons were for). He was so excited! He got it for the Fairmont. That's the resort that is right by the Phoenix Open, which had ended just a few days before, so the grounds were pristine! Everything was so green and there were water fountains and walkways everywhere. It was beautiful.

The view from our room was incredible! This was right from our balcony.

This was the view on the ground just below our room which was just as good!
We checked in then went right to dinner at Carlsbad Tavern. It was a fun place. They had bats hanging from the rafters all through the restaurant to enhance that "cave" feeling. Pretty cool! And of course, the food was excellent! A lot of it was very spicy. I guess we should have known since they actually had a heat index on the menu so you knew what you were in for depending on what kind of chili's were in each dish. It helps to have a chef for a daughter. She knows where the good spots are. We actually have enought left on the gift certificate to go back again. We also got Harkins movie passes so the next day we went to see a movie "New in Town" at the new Cina Capri. Cute movie...romantic comedy...appropriate for the weekend. I have to say the new Cina Capri just isn't the same as the one they tore down. I remember seeing Star Wars there when it first came out as a kid. I thought that was the coolest theater with the great big velvet curtains.

Our next stop was to a little ice cream shop called The Sugar Bowl in downtown Scottsdale for lunch and some ice cream. It looked like the ice cream shop from downtown Main St. in Disneyland. Then we walked around a bit and looked at some of the galleries. It was a wonderful weekend Thanks to our wonderful kids for a very well thought of Christmas gift!

Of course, Bob didn't like this picture, but, I had to add it. It sort of shows the decore in side with the pink lamps and the pink & white striped walls. He was finishing off the bannana split that we shared. We did a build-your-own thing with vanilla icecream on one side with a fudgy/marshmallow/caramel topping (it was kind of blended together) and raspberry sorbet on the other side with a marshmallow topping sprinkled with cashews and topped with whip cream. It was so yummy!

DISCLAIMER:

2009-02-17T12:35:00.000-08:00

Ok, these next pictures are not for the faint of heart. If you don't like blood...don't look! This is the 4th ingrown that I have had to cut out of Tanner's toes. It seems to need to be done about every 6 months or so. I have a friend who has access to novocain and will numb him up so that he can won't feel it. He keeps ripping his toenails off instead of clipping it and this is the result. He will walk around with it totally infected for at least a month or 2 until he cant stand it anymore, then he will ask for me to PLEASE take it out. Argh!.....teenagers! I still cannot figure out why he would wait 'til it gets this bad to get it taken care of. Every time I do this it heals really well, his toenail grows back really nice, then he goes and rips his toenail all jagged and presto...major ingrown! Next time I think I may have to remove the whole thing. I hear some people have to do this on a regular basis. YUCK! I actually had to do both big toes. The left one was the worst. His right toe only had one side infected.

This is the before of his left foot...

This is the really gross part...This is the after, which still looked pretty gross because the thing was so infected...
Here is Tanner, still smiling 'cus he was feeling no pain. I doused it with hydrogen peroxide, then Yarrow (great stuff!), bandaged it up, and viola, good as new.

He said the next day he felt so much better because all the pressure was released. He claims he won't "rip" his toenail off again, but he says that every time. I am guessing by next September or so we will be doing this again.

Christmas Night

2008-12-29T21:18:00.000-08:00

Another tradition we have is to wait until Christmas night to do stockings. It just kills the kids to have to wait all day, but it sure keeps the excitement going all day. We start out with our dinner which usually consists of a bunch of munchie/appetizer type foods.

Then we move on to our gift exchange. The siblings do a family gift for a different sibling each year, and Grandma & Grandpa always have a gift for each of the kids and grandkids. Once the gift exchanging is done, we all dig into our stockings. It's so much fun to be with family on Christmas day!

Bob was having fun holding Evalynne

Miracle was dressed up in a cute Christmas dress.

And when things got chaotic, this is where Pixie would end up. One of these times I am going to make her a pair of antlers. She looks just like a little fawn curled up under these trees!

Christmas Morning

2008-12-29T20:30:00.000-08:00

Christmas morning is always a special time. Before the kids can come down the stairs Bob turns on all the Christmas lights and lights the fireplace and makes sure everything is just right. This is a tradition that my dad did when I was a kid. It used to drive all of us nuts because he would "tinker" around and take his sweet time just to highten the suspense. We just had to carry on with that one. Bob really surprised me this Christmas with a most unusual gift. He gave me chickens! Yes, that's right,8 baby chicks. He definitely got points for being creative. We had been talking about getting chickens for a couple of years. He said that he and Tanner will build a chicken coupe on the side of the house. They really are cute. But I think Mugs thinks they were for her. She sat guard over them all day long. She wouldn't let Pixie or the cats anywhere near them. She is such a "Mama".The kids were pretty excited about getting tickets to "The Lion King" and "Wicked" musicals. Bob & I have seen both of them and the kids have always wanted to see them. Lion King is in January, but they will have to wait 'til July for Wicked.

Even Pixie got her Christmas presents. Hey, what can I say...

Family Christmas Party

2008-12-29T20:01:00.000-08:00

Every year we have a big family Christmas party the Monday night before Christmas for Family Home Evening. All the kids participate in playing our the nativity while Grandpa reads it out of Luke.

Miracle was a cute little angel and Evalynne was Baby Jesus. Mckenzi played Mary and Tanner was one of the wise men (or as the kids put it...one of the "Wise Guys").Summer lead the music...when she wasn't goofing around with Hannah. We all sing a bunch of Christmas carols then all the cousins have an ornament exchange. It's fun for them to get a different ornament each year to add to their collection.

Then we get a visit from a very special visitor that has been a big part of our family for many, many years clear back when McKenzi was a baby...Santa. McKenzi has had such a bond with him her whole life. She thought it was the most sonderful thing in the whole world because Santa was in her ward and she got to see him every week at church! Even now that she realizes he is one of Santa's special helpers, their bond remains strong. We sure love Santa Don!

Everyone waits their turn and Santa takes the time to visit with each child.
McKenzi & one of her best friends in the whole world!

Christmas Formal

2008-12-29T19:17:00.001-08:00

Summer & Brett went with their friends Linda & Brad to Christmas Formal. The gun thing?... Well, were not quite sure what that was...just a funny pose, I guess?!

We had to get pictures of the shoes. Summer felt out of place because she was the only one NOT in Van's

They had a spaghetti dinner here at our house, then they were off to the dance. Afterwards they went to another friends house with about 15 couples for dessert.

Grandma's Cookie Party!

2008-12-29T17:20:00.000-08:00

Every year my mother has a cookie party at her

house for all of the girl cousins older than 5. They all learn how to make about 6 different kinds of cookies. More power to my mother for doing this. She transforms her whole kitchen into a cookie shop for the day.

There is sugar, dough, colorful sprinkles, and

candy everywhere! All that aside, the girls all

love it! My mom loves having them over.

Each of the girls got to take home a whole tray full of cookies that they had made.

Then they get to move on to the gingerbread houses. They all love to decorate them in their own way.

Cali's was, of course, quite fancy...being a chef and all.

McKenzi was very proud of her creation. Hannah...you look so thrilled!

Although Summer couldn't make it to the party due to work, she still got to put together a gingerbread house. Grandma put together a kit for her.

2008-12-10T12:50:00.000-08:00

Miracle is just getting cuter by the moment! She is at that fun stage (4 months old) where she smiles and squeals all the time now. Grandbabies are so much fun!

Family Picture Time

2008-12-10T12:08:00.000-08:00

We had some fun family pictures taken a few days ago. We sure had fun taking them!

We have some good lookin' kids!

This was my kids favorite pose, for obvious reasons! How fun is this?!

Of couse they were all caught off guard with this one.

This was my favorite pose of the kids!

2008-12-10T11:56:00.000-08:00

My sisters, Heidi and Autumn, were both in town for Thanksgiving. My mom had the idea for all of us to go and get pedicures the day after Thanksgiving. We had a lot of fun. It was nice since I braved the early morning shopping and I was ready for the pedi. It was nice to have my sisters both here for the holiday.

Thanksgiving

2008-12-10T11:38:00.000-08:00

We celebrate with the Peterson side of the family

with dinner one year and dessert on the other. It gives everyone a chance to alternate years with the in-laws. This year happened to be the dessert year. I guess we have always been spoiled with homemade pies every year. Sorry, those who have to put up with store bought...you have no idea what you are missing! We had a spread of about 12 pies plus a plate of brownies with fudge sauce and vanilla ice cream. we had pumpkin, cherry, sweetpotato with a cranberry/pecan topping, a 3 berry rubarb, pecan, traditional apple, cream cheese lemon, lemon/blueberry cheesecake pie, mile high caramel apple pecan (yes, of course, Cali made these last 2) and a couple others that I cant remember off hand. They were all to Die for! Don't they look scrumptious!

Spooky Pooches!

2008-11-13T11:17:00.000-08:00

Ok, we had to get the pets in on the whole costume thing too. Pixie wasn't sure what to think about her pumpkin suit. She couldn't really move in it at all!

I made bat wings for Mugs last year. She is such a good dog!

Here is Pixie after the long night, all worn out. Such a pampered princess!

Halloween Night

2008-11-13T10:00:00.001-08:00

Halloween night I made my traditional dinner in a pumpkin. It was really yummy! Bob really enjoyed it! Cali came over to pass out candy since no one trick-or-treat's in their apartment complex.

Carter and Dian came over too. Bob set up a TV outside, hooked up a cable so we could watch Poltergeist, eat dinner, and pass out candy.We did not even carve a pumpkin this year, so Carter brought over his that he did. It was quite intricate. The pictures do not do it justice! It looked really cool with the candle lit in it

Here is Evelynne...less than 2 weeks old.

This all just wore Miracle out!

Halloween Party!

2008-11-13T09:02:00.000-08:00

Halloween has come and gone. We had an extended family get-together at my brother, Sterling's, house. We had quite an array of costumes. Here is Summer as a gangsta and Brett as a nerd. Summer is showing off her "grills" while Brett is showing that he can use some "grills"!

Tanner decided to be a ninja. He had a couple of swords strapped to his back. Not bad since he decided this just a few minutes before we left for the party.

McKenzi wanted to be "Bella" from the Twilight movie. We found a dress at Ross for really cheap that looks alot like the prom dress from the movie. Savannah was a cute witch.

Bob & I decided last minute too. Bob just put on some of his diving gear and I just painted my face like a cat.

Dennali (niece) was the cutest fairy princess.

We're not sure what my parents were. They just looked festive and goofy!

Autumn, my sister, was just a week away from giving birth and we thought her costume was a classic. With all the election garbage going on we all thought this was very fitting...pregnant welfare mom! She also had a bag of chips that went along with the costume. Very funny!

We all had lots of fun. We played games, ate pizza, and had homemade rootbeer. Homemade is the BEST! Here Preston , my brother, and McKenzi are roasting marshmallows. Here is Cali &I holding Evelynne & Miracle...such cute grandbabies!

2008-10-27T16:03:00.000-07:00

Bob took Tanner, Summer, and Brett (Summer's boyfriend) dove hunting a few weeks ago.

Sitting and waiting was not the fun part for Tanner! Doesn't he look thrilled?!

This was Summer's first experience at this. We all thought She was going to absolutely hurl when she actually had to pluck the feathers off the doves.

They finally got to the actually meat. Real appetizing huh?! At least they all had fun (EWWWE!)

Grandbaby #2

2008-10-27T15:52:00.000-07:00

Carter & Dian had their baby...Evelynne Rose on Saturday Oct. 18th just a little after 2 pm. She was 6 lb. 6 oz. and 19 1/2 " long. She was a month early, but she is healthy and doing really well. She came rather quickly. There was no time for an epidural. So quick is good! She is very cute!

2008-10-27T15:41:00.000-07:00

I'm holding Miracle who was 2 1/2 months old at the time of the picture and McKenzi is holding Evelynne. Look at the size difference.

One Proud Grandpa!

2008-10-27T15:37:00.000-07:00

These 2 granddaughters are going to have him wrapped around their tiny little fingers in no time at all!

I'm Finished

2008-10-08T18:27:00.000-07:00

I officially finished the Twilight series. Book 4 is seriously long! It took me only 4 days to finish though. I really do hope that the movie is somewhat as good as the books. They were quite captivating! At least I can get something done around the house now and catch up on some sleep. I don't do well with sleep deprivation!

Something else to take up my time...

2008-10-03T11:55:00.000-07:00

Ok, I've heard alot about this series of books. McKenzi can't get enought of these books. Cali bought all of them and read them all in less than a week. I figured I better read them and find out what they are all about. McKenzi insisted that I read them before the movie comes out next month. I have to say...these are a bit addicting. I found myself reading 'til 2 a.m. a couple of nights. I have gotten through 3 of them in 2 weeks. #4 will be next week. I can understand why everyone likes them. I am looking forward to the movie..even though it wont be as good as the books. McKenzi had me add the top 4 songs on the playlist...they are from the movie, of course.

Miracle's Blessing Day

2008-10-03T11:33:00.001-07:00

What a special time it was to have a first grandchild blessed. It was good to have lots of family there to support them. It was nice that Jeremiah's parent's were able to come up for it.It was also great that Great Grandma & Great Grandpa Schneider could make it down from Snowflake.

Homecoming!

2008-10-03T11:13:00.000-07:00

Summer was so excited to be going to Homecoming this year because she was actually going with a great guy that she likes and he treats her really well. (She kind of had some bad experiences going to the dances last year with a couple of real Dorks!). They had a blast! They went with a group of about 15 couples. They actually went to his Homecoming . Don't they make a cute couple! Yes, Brett, we think you are all right!

Ok, we had to add this...He bought cuff-links just for this. They both thought they we the coolest things because they matched her dress perfectly...notice the red stud.

It's Canning Time!

2008-10-03T09:34:00.000-07:00

September always seems to be a monthe of canning. This year was no different except I seem to have done a little more that usual...or I guess I tried a few different things that I don't normally do. Of course I did the usual peaches. I use only apple juice and add a little cinnamon and if you notice the funny chunk at the bottom of the jars, I added a chunck of candied ginger. I did about 17 jars. I had more peaches to do and I still had peach jam from last year, so I tried peach butter. It is so yummy! Not as thick as I would like, but it will make great pancake topping. I could have cooked it down for another hour, but I kind of ran out of time. I also did pears. Actually I forgot that I had ordered a box. Pears take so long to peel and I wasn't in the mood for all the time it takes. My mother let me borrow her peeler. It's a Kuhn Rikon peeler. It worked really well. All peelers are not made the same! i've got to get me one of these! I did 15 bottles. Then with the pears that were getting too soft I made Pear-Raspberry Jam. This was a first. It turned out perfect. I used the liquid Certo. I really like using this. I know it's a little more pricey, but this always sets up. Isn't it pretty?! (And it is so tasty!)

The powdered pectin is not as reliable...case and point: We took the kids to Canyon Lake about a month ago and on the way we noticed that the Prickly Pear Cactus fruit was ripe. I had always wanted to try making Prickly Pear Jam. Bob had gloves with him, so we stopped on the way home and picked as many as we could...until Bob couldn't stand it anymore...the thorns went right through his leather gloves. I had to pick quite a few out of his hand when we got home. We will use pliers next time! I found a couple of recipes on the internet and tried a batch with the powdered Sure-Jel...the small jar on the left...It never really set up. It tastes great and will make great pancake syrup. I found another recipe that called for the liquid Certo and did another batch. Than was the trick. It set right up and I noticed that it had much better color...the one on the right. I do have to say this was quite a learning experience. the easiest way to get all the prickles off was to hold each one over my gass burner and burn the prickles off. Cali came over and helped me with that part of it. It was almost too time consuming. But it sure makes great jelly!

Then I had to do something with all the tomatoes and bell peppers that I had in my garden. I used my mom's recipe for sweer tomato/pepper relish. It's so good on meat loaf or cheese crisps. I think it's great on chicken too. Then I just bottled about 15 jars of diced tomatoes.

Then, my all time favorite thing to can...Chicken! It ain't pretty, but it is by far the easiest, quickest thing to can. Of course you have to access to a pressure canner, but all you have to do is put the chicken in the jars...dice it in chunks, whole breasts or thighs, with or with out bones... add a little water and process. You can add seasonings if you want, but you don't have to. It is soooo much cheaper than to buy canned chicken from the store! It really is a no-brainer. I have also done the same with beef chunks. It's great!

Save the Family

2008-09-17T14:40:00.002-07:00

My mom just sent this clip and I think it just about says it all. With so much garbage out there threatening the the very core of the family unit, we should all stop and remember what we are here for and if we truly want to save the world, we must first fight to save the family! There are laws and propositions that are very important to families right now and it is extreemely important for each of us to do our part and get out there and vote! That's me on my soap box for the moment! (Go down to the bottom and turn off the playlist so that you can hear the song on the clip)